Posts by Deborah
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I've never enjoyed Iain M Banks all that much - the Culture leaves me cold, and The Algebraist got just plain boring - but I am hooked on Iain Banks, ever since I read what has to be the best first line ever, in The Crow Road.
"It was the day my grandmother exploded."
Fantastic.
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Thanks for the reminder, merc. I was about to respond to a post with a 'WTF?!!' masquerading as a 'please explain'.
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Late to the party but I'd add Le Guin's (mentioned earlier in the thread) The Dispossessed
A fantastic book, and one that tuned me into thinking about what an anarchic society might look like, and the extent to which we might replace external institutions of control with internal social mechanisms of control. <academic faff>For the various Pol. Theory nuts on here, think of Foucault's analysis of Bentham's Panopticon.</academic faff>
Political Theory aside, it's a very elegaic book. And having read it, I found that I was ready to read The Left Hand of Darkness, which I had previously found boring and unpalatable.
She's a great writer. I love the way that she makes me think about the different ways that we order our lives.
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Good grief, no. I'm not interested in arguing about the (im)moral structure of terrorism by making analogies with rape.
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Ooops! Critical step I left out....
To make my explanation of the 'all men are rapists' claim work, you really need to run with the idea that rape is not about sex, it's about power.
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I don't subscribe to the 'All Men Are Rapists' mantra
Neither do I. I have lived with a man for nearly 18 years now, and it is simply not a way that he could be characterised. He's a polar opposite to that idea. And indeed, virtually all the men I know are decent chaps who simply don't fit with this idea (you do meet some rotters sooner or later).
But...
... the original quote was much more subtle. I don't recall the exact words off hand, and seeing as it is the night before a long weekend, and I've had one or two drinks, I'm not going to hunt out the exact words. Nevertheless, the original piece considered the idea that even if they themselves weren't rapists, to the extent that they bought into the control that the fear of rape gave them over women, then all men were rapists.
Not a pretty thought. And although it's an analysis that I might agree with in the abstract (in the sense of "if A, then B really does follow"), my experience suggests that most of the men I know aren't actually interested in controlling women per se, let alone controlling them through the fear of rape. That is, A is simply not true, so then B can't be true either.
In social terms, we have come a long way since the 'all men are rapists' idea first gained notoriety. Nevertheless, B Jones (above) makes an interesting point. And so does 3410.
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So maybe the research on post-partum weight loss makes a bit more sense in the full context of Oken's research.
Oh, Neil. You're ruining all the fun!
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this thread needs to stay alive at least till the Press Council make their pronouncement on Dearest Deborah.
That's not me! Not that I have exclusive rights to the name...
So, just to be clear, Mr Walker is referring to Codders in this point, not to me.
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It's supposed to be about you, Stephen.
Did you read a special book at a special time?
See?
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I don't really blame Hitler for [the mistake of invading Russia]. The Soviets had just had their asses kicked by the tiny Finnish militia and Stalin had recently executed his entire officer corps (about 100,000 men) for no apparent reason. It must have looked like a slam dunk. Besides, he needed the oil.
He just forgot minor details like extended supply lines and Napolean's nemesis, the Russian winter.
The description of the retreat of Napolean's army in War and Peace is remarkable, even for an "I'm not really interested in war stories" girlie like me.